The team today splits up in two group. One heading towards Mirounga Bay to assess the penguin situation – and access to them – consisting of Jeff. Robin, Bianca and Klemens.

The second group – Dave, Thomas and Hannah – has Orde Lees as their destination. The day is supposed to be clear so a good opportunity to get some droning done. But first, it is foggy. The drone team takes the route up towards Mt Galloway in an attempt to circumnavigate the worst of the tussock-fern nightmare between Orde Lees and the North Plains. By the time they reach to tops of Mt Galloway, they already start to regret their choice as the trek up the mountain already drained most of their energy.

Thomas carrying the drone kit, as well as a rotary hammer to install a time lapse camera at Order Lees certainly has had his fill before the day has even begun to clear. What’s worse, however, is that the traversal from the mountain top to Orde Lees turns out to be just as nightmarish as the direct route would have been: sections with shoulder deep tussock and fern patches.

The final climb up the ridge that separates Orde Lees from the plains pulls the last bits of energy out of the team. To their horror, they realize that they needed to cross one more saddle to the south to have direct access to the penguin colony. As it turns out, they now have to sidle along a steep slope to get over to the penguins. Given that they have already 4 1/2 hours of struggling through the difficult terrain, Dave decides that this is as far as he goes, while Thomas and Hannah push on. The slope is overgrown with chest deep tussock grass that is extremely effective at issueing paper cuts to whoever decides to hold on to it. With the grass being the only hand hold available, Thomas and Hannah’s hands and arms soon look like they have been through a torture session.

However, once they reach the Orde Lees colony, they are rewarded with the most amazing sights. Literally thousands of penguins  occupy expansive rock platforms at the foot of a bizarre pointy limestone ridge that an abstract painter could have dreamed up. Orde Lees islet a stone pyramid rising up to more than 100m as a backdrop completes the picture.

The noise in the penguin colony is deafening. Every now and then, a Skua flies over the penguins which creates an acoutsic wave of outraged penguin cries that washes from one end of the colony to the other. Almost every penguin on in the colony seems to be associates with an active nest. Some birds still sitting on eggs, others tending chick that are in their second week – little grey fluffy tennis balls with a penguin head stitched on at the top.

Thomas and Hannah fly the first planned mission on the Antipodes. It is difficult to set the mission boundaries on the drone controller screen as the underlying satellite imagery does not really show elevated portions of the map very well. The mission is a true nail biter as the plastic bee sometimes gets dangerously close to the hillside and once even shaved off the tips of the tussock that grows on the steep slope at the southern end of the penguin colony. But the drone manages to get the mission done without intervention from the pilot required.

At around 3pm, Thomas and Hannah make their way back to Dave. He has been lying spreadeagled in the tussock for the better part of two hours now, snoozing in the sun. Still, the prospect of having to walk back to the hut for another eternity does not seem appealing at all. As it turns out, the walk back to the hut isn’t quite as bad. Somehow the team managed to stay out of the thick tussock and fern by following a stream and then just zigzagging from albatross nest to albatross nest. The volume of water the three consume is outrageous and just underlines how strenuous this trip has become. They refill their bottles and water bladders three times.

Exhausted the three stumbled back into the hut around 6pm where the Mirounga Bay team is already busy preparing dinner. Dave sums up his day as follows:

“By midday I thought I was gonna die. But then it got worse.”